Report: Commanders getting sued by Native American group

[Patsfan1958]

 

[Patjew]

How ironical.

 

[Kontradiction]

They already caved. Zero chance they change it back.

 

[Rob0729]

Just looked them up. Looks like they are an organization established solely to stop teams, schools, local governments, etc from banning sports mascots that are considered racially or culturally insensitive to the Native American community. That seems to be all they do.

 

[XLIX]

Not sure they have standing here.

 

[Kontradiction]

Just looked them up. Looks like they are an organization established solely to stop teams, schools, local governments, etc from banning sports mascots that are considered racially or culturally insensitive to the Native American community. That seems to be all they do.

Their point is that it isn’t culturally insensitive to Native Americans. They ARE Native Americans. The logo was based on “Two Guns” Whitecalf. That logo was also used on the Buffalo nickel. It’s good to see someone actually talk facts. Perhaps they’re just tired of white people speaking for them?

 

[PATS16N0]

It was weak they changed it, but after they did, I was alright with The Football Team, because it had a nice, blue-collar working-class NFL team-name vibe to it. The Titans will never sound like a pro-football team (too Greek) and the Commanders has the same stupid ring to it. They may as well start wearing those tacky arena football concept art uniforms.

 

[Rob0729]

Their point is that it isn’t culturally insensitive to Native Americans. They ARE Native Americans. The logo was based on “Two Guns” Whitecalf. That logo was also used on the Buffalo nickel. It’s good to see someone actually talk facts. Perhaps they’re just tired of white people speaking for them?

I don’t want to get too into this because this is treading dangerously close to politics. But I am sure some Native Americans think it is culturally insensitive, others don’t, and others don’t care either way. I doubt all Native Americans feel the same way on this issue. So I will leave it at that.

 

[Kontradiction]

I don’t want to get too into this because this is treading dangerously close to politics. But I am sure some Native Americans think it is culturally insensitive, others don’t, and others don’t care either way. I doubt all Native Americans feel the same way on this issue. So I will leave it at that.

Of course not, but nobody decided to ask them when it was changed. Native American groups were coming out and saying they didn’t find it offensive. The Blackfeet, whom “Two Guns” was the Chief over, had a great sense of pride in that name and logo. But if you brought that up with the white folk who were dead set on exercising their white savior complex when this happened, you were ignored or called a “racist” or something stupid like that.

 

[upstater1]

Been through this discussion before.

The claims of this group are not historical.

The term was used rarely before the James Fenimore Cooper novels such as Last of the Mohicans. That's what really introduced it to Americans. It was already considered pejorative by Webster's Dictionary in the 1800s.

Besides, polls have shown that an overwhelming number of indigenous people associate it with scalping. It's hard to really tell whether that's always been true because there's not much in the historical record. It's true now. But there are records of statements like this one, even though we have no idea how widespread this was: "The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin." You see several published references like this in Plains state newspapers. Clearly they're referring to scalps.

One wonders if it even matters what the history was if the vast majority think this is a slur.

 

[Rob0729]

Of course not, but nobody decided to ask them when it was changed. Native American groups were coming out and saying they didn’t find it offensive. The Blackfeet, whom “Two Guns” was the Chief over, had a great sense of pride in that name and logo. But if you brought that up with the white folk who were dead set on exercising their white savior complex when this happened, you were ignored or called a “racist” or something stupid like that.

I am not getting into this because this is culture war stuff that is basically politics. And Ian doesn’t want politics on this board.

 

[upstater1]

Their point is that it isn’t culturally insensitive to Native Americans. They ARE Native Americans. The logo was based on “Two Guns” Whitecalf. That logo was also used on the Buffalo nickel. It’s good to see someone actually talk facts. Perhaps they’re just tired of white people speaking for them?

The organization that boycotted Snyder's Washington club was a national organization of native Americans, not this small group. It wasn't white people at all.

In fact, the leaders made it known that they had been actively opposing the name since the 1980s but it wasn't until Snyder started losing advertisers that he changed his mind.

 

[Nehalem]

Been through this discussion before.

The claims of this group are not historical.

The term was used rarely before the James Fenimore Cooper novels such as Last of the Mohicans. That's what really introduced it to Americans. It was already considered pejorative by Webster's Dictionary in the 1800s.

Besides, polls have shown that an overwhelming number of indigenous people associate it with scalping. It's hard to really tell whether that's always been true because there's not much in the historical record. It's true now. But there are records of statements like this one, even though we have no idea how widespread this was: "The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin." You see several published references like this in Plains state newspapers. Clearly they're referring to scalps.

One wonders if it even matters what the history was if the vast majority think this is a slur.

Honestly I think the vast majority of people only associated Redskins with the football team.

For a word to be a slur you would think that would be common knowledge and not something that would require people to go through the historical record to figure it out.

I guess if redskin was a slur it pretty much stopped being one and only became a sports team name. Basically the reverse of how the politically correct word for people with low-IQ has to keep being changed because it becomes a slur.

 

[Nehalem]

They already caved. Zero chance they change it back.

They should just change it every 2 years to maximize merchandise sales.

 

[Water Boy]

Native Americans engaged in slavery.

 

[IcyPatriot]

Will this be the Commanders last stand?

Asking for a friend.

Commanders is a horrible name ...
Why not the Washington Nads

 

[Schmo]

I have an opinion on this topic, and it's wrong, no matter what I think.

 

[Nikolai]

Should have gone with Warriors and kept the logo, but I'm an idiot on the internet, so there's also that...

 

[upstater1]

Honestly I think the vast majority of people only associated Redskins with the football team.

For a word to be a slur you would think that would be common knowledge and not something that would require people to go through the historical record to figure it out.

I guess if redskin was a slur it pretty much stopped being one and only became a sports team name. Basically the reverse of how the politically correct word for people with low-IQ has to keep being changed because it becomes a slur.

It's a slur to the vast majority of Native Americans.

This is a small group. Don't know who they are, they could be astroturf.

I guess I don't understand your point at the end of the day. I mean, it's not a slur against me because I'm not Native American. So to say it's not a slur for the vast majority of people really doesn't tell us anything.

 

[n1997y]

It was weak they changed it, but after they did, I was alright with The Football Team, because it had a nice, blue-collar working-class NFL team-name vibe to it. The Titans will never sound like a pro-football team (too Greek) and the Commanders has the same stupid ring to it. They may as well start wearing those tacky arena football concept art uniforms.

It was the Washington Football Team.

abbreviated “WFT” (not WTF!), pronounced “whiffed”.

It was appropriate, they should’ve stuck with it.